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I read a lot of novels for fun, but also dissect them in the back of my mind, thinking about the author's craft: what works, what doesn't, why he or she has made the choices they have and whether I can learn anything for my own writing.

I've just finished re-reading some books by Matthew Reilly, an author that I like in many respects, but find frustrating in others. I first discovered Reilly when he published Area 7 , finding it to be a fun read with some aspects that bothered me a little, then gradually collected his whole set.

There's a lot to like about Reilly. He self-published Contest, caught the attention of mainstream publisher and went onto international success. He was an earlier adventurer in the e-book world, uploading free .pdfs of Hover Car Racer to his site way back in 2004. His style builds on the science-based techno-thrillers of Michael Crichton, military tactics of Tom Clancy, history/mystery of Dan Brown, secret agent gadgets of James Bond (more the movies than the Fleming novels) and shear action/adventure of Lucas & Spielberg's Indiana Jones.

But, as I've noted before, if Stephen King is the (self-described) "literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries", then I doubt Reilly would object if I called him the literary equivalent of Jerry Bruckheimer or Michael Bay.

Last time I shared my early thoughts on the ideal reader for Blue Prime. In that case, I was focused on content, i.e. who would like the novel for the type of story it was.

As I shifted my mindset to e-book publication, in the early days of thinking about Project-52, I came up with the following profile for typical readers for my e-books:

Martin Jones1 is 40, a share trader in a New York firm, who spends half an hour on the subway each morning and evening. He loves to read – gets a stack of novels from the library ever week, has three large bookshelves double-stacked with thrillers (Clancy, Grisham, King, Baldacci etc). But…he hasn’t read a physical newspaper in two years, getting his news from on-line sites. But… he just got an iPad or Kindle for his birthday and is dying to try it out. As he embraces the new format, he’s keen to try a new author.

Susie Smith is 20, a nursing student living in the outskirts of Sydney. She’s Gen-Z, has been surfing the net since she was 5, blogging since 10, tweeting since 12 and hasn’t read a paper book that wasn’t mandated by a teacher, nor physically picked up a video from a shop. If it’s not delivered wirelessly, she doesn’t want it. She likes adventure, has read a ton of on-line YA fiction but now wants to try something harder. She doesn’t want to read about old people who don’t understand her world, so is seeking e-book thrillers with a tech edge.

This description manages to combine thoughts on both the type of person who would be into the stories and the type of person who would be into reading them electronically. As I write Black Storm I've been thinking of readers who embody both ideas: people who like action stories with darker, complicated characters and who do all of their reading on screens.

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I find it fascinating to read authors' descriptions of their typical or ideal reader.

Some are very specific, usually noting that they write for themselves, or their wives/husbands/partners.

Others, perhaps being wary of saying something that will put people off buying their books, go insanely broad: "I think there's something in it for everyone," or "I write for old and young, male and female."

Given that one of the oft-quoted maxims about writing is "write for your audience", I think it's important to have a mental picture of an ideal reader.

So I figured I should write about my ideal reader, and put as much thought into them, as if they were a character in my fiction.

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The dead woman in the dark corner of the university campus looked to be about 22 or 23.

The stab wounds on Jewell McQueen’s chest, one either side of her tracksuit’s zip, were enough to ensure this case would be front page news. Detective Jack Deckard knew the two objects next to the body would really cause a storm: a wicked-looking hunting knife stabbed through a blood-smeared playing card.